Baywaves // Tales From The City

Thinking about what London means for us, Baywaves, I’ve realized that every time we’ve been there, it felt like a different city. On one hand I can clearly recall a cold and grey Dickensian morning, being late, trying to fit a huge instrument hardcase in a crowded Victoria Line carriage, thinking “they have so many airports and yet they are all so far away”. But then I can also remember a spring day, taking a stroll through ‘Love Walk’ (real street name, somewhere in Peckham, I believe) thinking “How would anyone live anywhere else but here?”.

But if there is something that’s always the same, it is having dinner after a show. As Spaniards, we are used to having dinner later than most European countries, so when in London we tend to think “We’ll grab something to eat after the show”. The thing is, show times in London are quite peculiar, just like the closing time of restaurants. Therefore, most of our British feasts have consisted of late night fried chicken and off-license fruit juices. For us, London used to mean waking up hungry.

Until the day everything changed: we were introduced to the wonderful world of Wetherspoon’s breakfasts. I want to believe it was in the Brixton one, and since then London mornings have become a whole different story. Every British person we’ve met has raised an eyebrow with this story, so I can’t stress enough the importance of this discovery: the breakfast is so cheap, yet so good. Tasty vegan sausages; the mix of bacon and maple syrup; instant- hangover-cure porridge with blueberries…

It doesn’t matter where we end up sleeping, there will always be a close Wetherspoon to forget last night’s fried chicken. Our own private London ritual.